


Satisfied, Alternate Ending

by oliviaandersonisntmyrealnamelol



Series: Satisfied and its various outtakes [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Whump, i also use my psych knowledge for messing with people--, i call this one 'yall are really lucky i only use my psych knowledge for writing', im kidding, like literally its just a whump, or maybe 'flexing my possible sociopathy for 4.5k words'
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:54:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28084254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliviaandersonisntmyrealnamelol/pseuds/oliviaandersonisntmyrealnamelol
Summary: Yeah… trigger warnings. I don’t really know the words for a lot of triggers but if you’re squeamish around emotional and physical abuse or Stockholm syndrome I would suggest not reading thisYou don’t need to read Satisfied to read this one. There are a few references to the story, but really all you need to know is that Marinette is using the horse miraculous to spy on the RoguesAlright I'm done procrastinating my next proper fic with submitted prompts I'll update in a few years
Series: Satisfied and its various outtakes [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116626
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

She hummed lightly as she went around the warehouse, gathering her things (Catwoman had a tendency to take her things, then get bored of them and leave them in random places). She was just about to open a portal when Joker spoke:

“Wait, NightMare, could you come back later tonight?”

A chill ran down her spine and Marinette spun on her heel to face him.

“Of course, Joker, sir. May I know why?” She said as pleasantly as she could.

He only smiled wider behind his mask.

She bit down on the inside of her cheek and opened a portal for herself.

~

Marinette stepped into the warehouse again and hugged herself tightly. There were no Rogues in sight outside of Joker, who was leaning against his cane as he waited for her.

But, while this worried her, what really messed with her was the fact that he was standing on a tarp. She strained to remember whether or not the tarp had been there earlier, because if it hadn’t…

She tasted blood and quickly released her tongue.

The plastic crinkled beneath her as she walked over to him.

“What did you need me for, sir?”

He didn’t answer again.

“Is something wrong?”

The man finally looked at her and icy dread flooded through her veins. He wasn’t smiling.

But she didn’t have time to figure out what his expression meant, because the lights chose that exact moment to flicker and die.

Marinette made two tiny portals and slowly moved them around, using the dim blue light that they gave off as a kind of makeshift flashlight. It was barely anything, she could still only see a few steps ahead of her, but at least it was better than the total darkness she’d just been in.

She looked around for Joker and couldn’t help but panic a little bit when she couldn’t find him. Where had he gone? He was just next to her, and the tarp crinkled underneath her with every step, how had he just up and disappeared without her knowing?

“I’ll go find the fuse box,” she said softly. There was a very low chance that this was a coincidence but she wasn’t going to risk her identity quite yet.

Her eyes peered around the darkness and she started to walk, only to hear the tarp crinkle behind her. She whipped around in surprise just in time to see the mallet coming towards her face.

Her head jerked back so painfully she swore her neck snapped and she found herself weightless.

Or, at least, she felt weightless right up until she slammed into a wall headfirst. She became painfully aware of just how not weightless she was as her body crumpled in on itself.

She slid to the floor slowly. Her head pounded painfully and she could barely see through all the colorful lights dancing in her vision. She tried to shake her head to get rid of them, but it only seemed to make it worse.

Harley came into view and Marinette cursed when she realized that she was the one to hit her with the mallet. The woman wore an uncharacteristically sad expression as she pointed it at her.

“You were really working for Bats the whole time?” She whispered, her voice soft.

“I don’t…” She swallowed back bile and blood. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please…”

The woman in front of her sighed. “Liar.”

She raised her mallet and Marinette tried to move her body. It was supposed to move, she was telling it to move, why wouldn’t it move?

The mallet came down on her and her eyes rolled back in her head.

~

God, five senses and all of them sucked.

People were screaming in her left ear. Someone must have manually turned on her comm. Every word felt like a mallet to the head (something that she now could say for certain). Their voices blended together, though, and it was useless to even try to discern what they were saying.

Her nose was bleeding. Every painful breath through her definitely broken nose was accented by the scent of her blood.

She’d tried to breathe through her mouth, only to taste blood instead of smell it.

Someone had bound her in her own lasso, and they hadn’t been gentle. The rope dug into her skin and chaffed against her with every breath.

The lights were back on. She wished they weren’t. The lights were so bright that even having her eyes open a sliver sent pain racing through her skull.

But she needed to see. She peeled her eyes open.

The Rogues were all standing over her, betrayal etched on each of their faces.

Outside of Joker, who looked like he was having the time of his life.

She didn’t really know which was worse.

“So, she’s finally stopped dreaming!” Said Joker brightly. “Now, we have limited time before the bats start tracking you -- if they haven’t already -- so be a doll and tell us which ear your comm is in.”

She opened her mouth to tell him to fuck off, only to choke on her own blood.

“I’d suggest telling us, it’ll be a lot less painful for you,” said Penguin, pointing his umbrella at her.

Marinette glared up at them, lips pressed together tightly.

“Right, we’ll have to guess,” said Catwoman.

Penguin nodded. He tipped his head from side to side as if considering before he positioned his umbrella under her left ear. She could feel the cold blade against her earlobe and horror filled her as she realized what was happening. He pressed down on her stomach with his foot to hold her still and then sliced upwards.

Her ear fell to the floor beside her.

She nearly bit her tongue off to stop herself from screaming. Unfortunately, she couldn’t help the rest of her reaction: her body wouldn’t stop shaking, tears and blood spilled from her head.

Joker leaned down next to her and checked the wound.

“Wrong one!”

Her eyes widened. But it was the right one. Her tear-filled eyes found Harley’s. Surely, she could tell he was lying. That was her thing. Marinette couldn’t tell them -- if she opened her mouth she would sob, and she could not let them hear that -- but Harley could.

But the woman averted her gaze.

And Penguin pressed harder into her to hold her still again and poised his umbrella over her right ear.

And then he chopped that one off, too.

A guttural scream escaped her lips despite her best attempts to stifle it and she thrashed around desperately.

Joker leaned down and gave a mock gasp of surprise. “Oh!” His voice sounded tiny and far away. “Guess I missed it! Oopsies!”

He reached into her left ear and dug her comm out with his gloved fingers. She spasmed around in her bindings, sobs slipping from between her lips.

She couldn’t even manage to stay conscious long enough to watch him smash her comm -- her last chance of being saved -- under his foot.

~

She woke up to the sound of metal scraping against metal.

It was just Harley and Joker right now, and they were pushing the heavy lid off of a vat of acid.

She was also still tied up, but that was hardly important to her at the moment.

Wait, actually, now that she was trying to get away, it was definitely important to her.

“Oh, look who woke up just in time, Harls!” Said Joker when he noticed her slowly inch-worming away.

She cursed quietly and then shot him a glare. “So, what’s the plan here? Throw me in acid and see if it kills me? It won't.”

Joker laughed, waving her off. “Of course not! This is trial number two of my experiments.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh? An experiment? You have an independent and dependent variable? How are you quantifying it? Where’s your control group?”

Harley shook her head, giving her a look like ‘shut up if you know what’s good for you’.

Marinette, in fact, did not know what was good for her.

“Besides, that implies that you’ve done this before.”

“I have! On Red Robin. Of course, that experiment failed… he didn’t kill Batman like I’d asked him to, but I think I know where I went wrong!”

She raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t heard about this.

“You see, for him I had to be careful how much I tortured him. If I had killed him then it would have been a waste of time and effort. But with you… I can do whatever I want with you and you won’t die.”

Oh. Fuck.

Still, she gave him a cocky grin. “But he snapped out of your brainwashing and everything. Clearly, torture doesn’t work. I doubt the amount you do will make it any different.”

His eyes narrowed.

“We’ll see about that.”

She took a deep breath as he picked her up and brought her to the edge of the vat. She just had to make sure to hold her breath for as long as possible…

Except, the moment her skin touched the acid, she screamed.

It felt like every cell in her body was attempting to break away from her. She screamed until her throat was raw. Every movement pulled another sob from her lips.

She needed to breathe. But there wasn’t anything around her to breathe in besides acid. She tried to hold it off as long as she could, but it was useless. She acid streamed into her nose and mouth and suddenly the pain was on the inside, too.

A different pain started on her scalp and suddenly cold air rushed over her.

Joker had pulled her out by her hair, and was now holding her torso above the acid. Sure, everything still in the acid and her insides were still on fire, but it wasn’t all of her anymore.

“If you want it to stop, just say please.” He cupped his free hand to his ear like he was about to listen to her.

She opened her mouth, prepared to beg despite her pride, but all that came out was acid. Had she forgotten how to breathe? To speak? She tried to force some air into her lungs, she knew the basic motion for breathing, but it couldn’t seem to push through any of the acid.

“Well, if you have nothing to say…”

He pushed her head back under again.

God, she wished she was dead. Her body was trying so hard to die, she could feel it. The problem was the stupid suit she was wearing: the horse miraculous wasn’t about to give up its user without a fight.

She mouthed the words, but it was useless. You have to actually say them. No sound left her lips, so she was forced to remain painfully alive.

She slowly curled in on herself in the acid, unable to do anything besides cry.

And then a hand pulled her out again. This time, to her surprise, she fully left the vat.

She looked at Harley through heavy eyelids and the woman reached out and gently closed her eyes for her.

Joker sounded annoyed as he spoke: “You’d better have some good suggestions, Harley.”

“Of course! I was a psychiatrist, I can break her for you! Here’s what I suggest we do...”

Marinette didn’t get to hear the suggestions, she was too busy falling unconscious.

~

She woke up on the floor of what appeared to be a lab. Clinically bright lights assaulted her eyes and she had to keep her gaze on the ground to stop herself from crying.

She wasn’t bound anymore. This didn’t mean that moving was easy. Her body shook as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

“Ah, she’s awake!” Said Scarecrow’s voice.

Her head whipped around to where it had come from, she hadn’t noticed another person with her, and found it was only a speaker on the wall. Oh. That made more sense.

“Now, this is a new batch. I’ve been working to perfect my fear toxin, and I think this is the one! Do tell me about your experience when this is over.”

She watched as the gas flooded into the room. Adrenaline coursed through her as she looked around. She needed a way out.

There! Maybe! Whatever, she had no other options!

She ran to the observation window. It was one-way glass, she couldn’t see through it, but they had to be there. She threw herself at it as hard as she could and groaned in pain when she realized it was bullet-proof glass. Now she knew how Hood had felt when he’d crashed into that window. No wonder he hadn’t moved for twenty minutes afterward. Her body throbbed painfully.

And why should she move? It wasn’t like she was going to be able to avoid the gas.

She closed her eyes as the gas enveloped her.

For a second there was nothing.

She allowed herself to think that, hey, maybe it was a bust. He’d said it was a new version, after all...

And then she heard screaming.

Her eyes snapped open and she watched with horror at the scene unfolding in front of her.

She was at the Wayne Gala, if the fancy outfits and semi-familiar surroundings meant anything. But it wasn’t the calm, posh event that she’d been told about: everyone was running around and screaming at the top of their lungs.

And she could see why.

The Rogues stood at the door, their goons behind them.

And they were all holding machine guns.

“Tikki, spots on!”

She ran through the crowd, pushing past terrified civilian after terrified civilian. She could see the bats doing the same.

And then they opened fire.

People fell to the ground, riddled with holes.

She couldn’t think about it. She ran faster, desperate to do something. Anything.

A shot nailed her in the head.

She was unconscious before she’d even hit he ground.

Marinette groaned as she pushed herself to a sitting position. Just a nightmare, then. Sunlight glared down on her and she brought up a hand to use to block some of it out so she could open her eyes a little.

And god, did she wish she hadn’t. The area around her was covered in bodies. People, the ghost of their last moments of terror on their face, all slumped over each other, motionless. Dried blood coated the grass.

“Oh, thank god, you’re up. You can fix it, right?” Said Tim, and she quickly turned to look at him. She hadn’t been expecting to see him or the rest of the bats there. She breathed a sigh of relief. They were okay, at least…

And then she processed what he’d asked her.

She looked at the floor to avoid their gazes, which was decidedly a mistake. Bile built up in the back of her throat.

So… so much blood…

Damian clicked his tongue. “C’mon, hurry up. They’ve been dead for ages. They’re going to smell soon.”

Her eyes snapped back to him, and she would have been angry at any other time. Now, though, as she looked at them all…

“I… I didn’t summon a lucky charm. I can’t… I’m so sorry...”

Jason’s eyes widened behind his mask, and then he groaned and brought his hands to his hair. “What the fuck do you mean you can’t?!”

She winced.

“You didn’t think to cast a lucky charm beforehand?” Said Damian with a scowl on his face.

She bit the inside of her cheek. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think of it.”

“How? It’s literally your thing,” said Dick.

Marinette felt tears spill over the front of her mask and she brought up a hand to wipe them away, only to find it was coated in dried blood.

“What the fuck do we even keep you around for?” Jason said, pulling her attention back to them.

Dick pinched the bridge of his nose. “We should have known after that whole ‘murdering a clerk’ incident.”

“That was an accident!”

“The only way you could kill someone accidentally is if you were an idiot.”

“I’m not stupid, but it was an accident!”

They weren’t looking at her anymore.

“I told you we should have tried harder to make her give up after the convenience store stuff,” said Bruce with a tiny frown.

“No, what we should have done was never involve her at all,” said Damian.

Marinette hugged her knees to her chest. Every word they’d said was like another tiny knife through her heart, but…

She looked at Tim. He’d been silent for a while. Surely, he would understand. They were friends, after all, had been even before the costumes and vigilantism. At least he had to have some sort of care for her --.

But then he sneered at her. “How did you fail at the one thing we needed you to do? Could you be any more useless?”

Her heart shattered.

“I’m… I’m not useless! I can still do things! I messed this one up… really bad… but that doesn’t mean I can’t still be useful!” She pushed herself to her feet and ran to him. She grabbed his arm. “Please! I promise, there’s still so much I can do! Please --!”

But he pulled his arm from her with a disgusted expression.

She watched the bats walk away and slowly fell to her knees.

“Please… I’m not useless… Please...”

She buried her face in her hands. Tears trickled between her fingers.

“Don’t leave…”

~

You’d think that, after the third or fourth time, having your friends leave you would hurt less. That you would be numb. But it only seemed to get worse and worse.

Every single time she saw their disgusted expressions, every time she listened to their hurtful words, every time she watched their retreating backs…

It cut deeper and deeper.

She wanted it to stop. Why wouldn’t it? Was there anything she could do to stop it? Or would she be doomed to be alone for the rest of her life?

The screaming restarted.

She sighed and opened her eyes to terrified elites.

Here we go again...

~

A hand gently shook her awake and she opened her eyes.

This was new. Maybe the fear toxin had decided to get creative this time.

Harley was leaning over her.

Marinette would have screamed if she could, but her throat was raw from crying.

Still, she sunk into the floor as much as she could.

“Hey, darlin’, it’s okay…” said Harley gently. She held out a hand and Marinette flinched. Then she realized that the woman was offering a glass of water.

She frowned. Was it poisoned? She didn’t think she had a deep-rooted fear of being poisoned, but there was no other reason the woman would be doing this for her.

Harley sighed quietly and took a sip, then offered it to Marinette again. “It’s not poisoned, darlin’.”

She raised her eyebrows slightly and slowly downed the water. It wasn’t enough. She felt like she could drink an entire pool’s worth of water and still be thirsty. But she wasn’t going to risk asking for it.

The woman smiled faintly and reached out a hand. Marinette flinched again, but the woman continued on to cup her cheek.

It took everything in her not to lean into the woman’s touch. When was the last time she’d had skin-to-skin contact…?

But there had to be some sort of catch.

“Why?” She whispered, her voice raspy.

“Because it’s been a long few days for you.”

Days? No wonder she felt so awful.

“Aren’t you mad? I was going to betray you…”

“I wasn’t mad, just disappointed,” she said, running her thumb along her cheekbone gently.

God, the little affection felt amazing…

But…

“I’m not going to kill Batman. I’m not of use to you.”

The woman withdrew her hand. Marinette felt like crying. Damn it, why did she have to go and ruin it like that? She could have pretended for longer. No wonder people left her so often. She wasn’t even smart enough to know when to lie...

“But you could be,” she promised.

Her head shot up to look at Harley, but she was already leaving.

The wall opened up and she paused before stepping through to give Marinette an unreadable smile.

“I’ll let you think about it. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

The door shut behind her and green gas began to flood the room.

~

Harley was back again. This time, she had given her a granola bar.

She scarfed it down. Her face reddened when she saw Harley looking at her and she wiped a few stray crumbs from her mouth.

The woman chuckled and reached out to get some crumbs she’d missed.

Marinette closed her eyes.

“I know you’re trying to ‘break’ me. I heard you tell Joker you would. It won’t work.”

Harley didn’t say anything, just allowed her to continue on.

“The whole ‘psychological torture’ thing isn’t that different from just torturing me physically. It takes longer and uses more resources. Don’t see why you bother.”

She sighed quietly. “There’s more to it than that, darlin’.”

Marinette frowned.

“Wow, weren’t you supposed to be smart?” She made a quiet ‘tsk’ sound and pulled her hand away. “Maybe you were right, you can’t kill Batman. I don’t know why we expected you to be able to beat the ‘World’s Greatest Detective’ when you can’t even figure out what I’m doing…”

She knew it was just to get a rise out of her. She knew it was meant to annoy her. Didn’t mean it didn’t work.

“I’m not stupid!” She hissed.

The woman smirked a little. “Sure you aren’t.”

“I’m not!”

“Really?” Harley laughed. “It’s not like you can prove it stuck in here, and it’s not like you’re going to try and kill Batman. You said it yourself, you wouldn’t do that. So, what, are you going to do taxes?”

She jutted her chin out. “I could. Give me your tax papers. I’ll do them.”

The woman raised her eyebrows slightly and gave an unreadable smile, reaching out and ruffling her hair.

Marinette allowed herself to lean into her touch. Just a little.

She watched the woman leave and broke into a smile.

Not only was she going to be able to prove that she could be useful (she’d done taxes with her parents several times as a kid, she could do Harley’s no problem), she was going to do it without agreeing to kill Batman.

Also, since the fear toxin apparently wasn’t making an appearance this time, she was almost getting bored.

She was going to call the fact that she was about to do Harley’s taxes for her a win.

~

A few hours later, Harley stepped in and dropped the stack of papers in a half-awake Marinette’s lap.

She startled and looked around wildly to figure out what was going on. Then she relaxed when she saw the woman. She was handed a crayon and she raised her eyebrows.

“Only writing utensil you can’t kill anyone with,” explained Harley. She grinned at her. “You sure you can do this?”

“Of course I’m sure!”

Harley laughed and leaned down, pressing a kiss to Marinette’s forehead. “Good for you, darlin’.”

She beamed as she got to work.

~

Harley smiled faintly as she walked in a few days later. She offered some coffee and a few cookies. Marinette gave a whoop and took them from her, relishing in the taste a little. Was it at all nutritious? No. But it was a hell of a lot tastier than water and granola bars.

“How’s it coming along?”

“Done!” Said Marinette brightly, handing over the papers.

The woman raised her eyebrows as she flipped through it. Her eyes scanned them and she chuckled. “Wow, it’s all correct…”

“Oh, it’s no big deal.”

It was a big deal. She’d spent days poring over every number she wrote, overthinking even the most basic math problems. But she wasn’t going to say that. Harley looked so proud of her, surely she’d be more proud if she thought it wasn’t that hard.

And, to Marinette’s delight, the woman leaned down and wrapped her in a hug. “Nice job, darlin’! You’ve done so well!”

~

When the door opened again, Marinette beamed and looked up.

Only for her smile to drop.

Because Joker was with Harley.

She squeaked and attempted to fade into the wall behind her.

Harley made a quiet ‘tsk’ sound with her tongue at Marinette’s obvious horror. “Now, now, darlin’... be nice.”

Marinette hesitated, but she did carefully walk over to Joker and shake his outstretched hand. “Nice to see you,” she strained.

He looked a little bit impressed, though not that much.

Harley, however, openly smiled. She wrapped her arm around Marinette’s shoulders and pulled her into her side. “Thank you.”

She nodded ever so slightly.

~

They waved at his retreating back and Marinette waited until the door was closed behind him to speak: “I’m not going to kill Batman. Not for you, and especially not for him.”

The woman pulled away from her with a frown on her face.

She tried not to whine at the loss of touch. After all, it was her fault. She’d ruined the moment, once again, by admitting that she wasn’t going to be useful in the one way Harley so desperately wanted her to.

“Really?” She sighed and shook her head. “Maybe you and Joker were right. Maybe I’m putting too much work into this… I don’t know. I’ll let Scarecrow have you while I figure it out. Who knows how long that’ll take.”

Marinette squeaked. “You’re coming back in the meantime, right?”

“I don’t know.”

Nononononono she couldn’t be left alone again! Especially not with the fear gas! That was even worse!

But…

She couldn’t kill Batman either.

She couldn’t.

Right?

She watched Harley leave and fell to her knees. She could see the fear toxin slowly streaming in.

~

She found she had made up her mind.

The bats had yet to find her, despite it having been around a month from her approximations. If they’d really wanted her back, wouldn’t they have done so by now? Sure, it was made harder by the fact that they couldn’t track her, but weren’t they supposed to be the ‘World’s Greatest Detectives’ or something? They must not be trying.

And, besides…

When she’d broken the news, she’d been wrapped in a bone-crushing hug.

Marinette choked back a sob, though she didn’t know why. She hugged back, burying her face in Harley’s neck.

It felt so good to be held like this. Like she mattered. Like someone cared about her.

She would do anything to keep it that way.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know, I was going to do some cute fluff for Valentine’s Day... and then I got an ask on tumblr asking for how the bats would react and I was like neW PLAN
> 
> Also, I think I’ve gotten worse at angst since starting antidepressants. Now that it happened it's obvious, but >:(

She swung her legs absently as she waited for the bats to come home. She’d turned on the fire, and then taken a seat on top of the fireplace. It was a testament to just how long she’d been there that she was pretty sure her legs would catch if nothing happened within the next few minutes.

Not that she would have cared, really.

Her eyes swept over the room for what felt like the millionth time in her boredom.

She decided she didn’t like this living room. Too many couches. Rich people are weird.

And then there was the pictures…

She eyed the picture frames from across the room. She’d turned all them around a few minutes after she’d come in. There was something uncomfortable about looking at them… or maybe her problem was them looking at her? Either way, she didn’t like it.

Besides, she was probably going to be seeing them in person in a few minutes, and they definitely wouldn’t be having those smiles then.

Marinette didn’t quite know who would get home and when. She could have figured it out if she’d wanted, could have studied them for days on end, but why would she?

She knew Cass and Duke were asleep in their apartment, at least. They’d patrolled together all day. They wouldn’t be involved.

But any of the other batboys were fair game to show up at any moment.

Not that Marinette wanted them to. She didn’t know how she felt about most things anymore, really, but she definitely didn’t feel like killing them.

She could. If she absolutely had to. With her powers it would be easy… but she hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

She was pulled out of her musing when she heard chatter coming down the hallway. They were close. Maybe. She couldn’t tell. Her ability to tell volume had been greatly diminished since her ears had been cut off.

She strained her not-ears to try and discern Bruce’s voice from the mix. She didn’t think she heard it…

They were definitely coming this way, though, so she’d know for sure in a few moments.

After all, there was no way that they wouldn’t hear the crackling of the fire. It was why she’d set it up, to bring them there.

The door swung open. Her legs stopped swinging.

Wow. Really? She knew her luck was bad, but really? How had she managed to get four out of the five people in the house to come in and not one of them was her actual target.

For a moment, the five of them stared at each other wordlessly.

She bit the inside of her cheek. Should she just portal out…?

No. They’d already seen her. If she left the bats would be more on guard the next time she saw them. This was probably her only chance.

But that meant --.

“Mari?” Dick’s voice broke through the silence.

Could she play this off as just her coming back? Sure, Harley likely wouldn’t approve of how long that would take her… but then again Harley likely wouldn’t approve of her coming home empty-handed, either.

She brought a hand up to rest over the tiny pin on her lapel. It was broadcasting everything that was happening straight to Harley and Joker…

She wondered, vaguely, what they were thinking.

They were probably laughing.

“Is that really you?” Said Jason.

She considered the question for a moment, then brought a smile to her face. “Maybe.”

Dick took a couple steps forward. A hand reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt, holding him back.

“You’re pale,” observed Tim.

Of course he would notice.

She giggled a little. “Yeah. Lack of sunlight and chemical baths do that.”

“Chemical baths?” Repeated Damian cautiously.

“Don’t worry, I was only thrown in chemicals… once? Well, I was thrown in once and pushed under twice.”

This didn’t seem to console anyone. Shockingly.

She hopped down from her spot on top of the fireplace. The bats tensed a little.

She gave a mock pout. “Don’t trust me?”

“Sorry, kid, you’re just acting… weird,” said Jason.

Weird? She hadn’t thought she was acting any different but, then again, she couldn’t really remember how she used to act.

“None taken,” Marinette said. “But, really, if I wanted you guys hurt, you already would be.”

Damian clicked his tongue. “Is that so?”

Her eyes narrowed.

Dick sighed. “Why would you challenge her? Why did you think that would be --?”

“Well, I might as well prove him wrong, don’t you think? I mean, I could kill you guys with a couple portals if I wanted. A little snip --”

Two portals appeared dangerously close to Damian’s head and then closed again.

“-- or a good hit --”

She opened a portal underneath herself and touched ground behind the bats. She poked Tim in the back and smiled when he turned around, reaching out and stealing the pen attached to his chest pocket.

“-- and then there was this thing I learned how to do a little bit ago!”

She tossed the pen in the air and, with a brief flash of blue light, it was gone.

“... I still don’t know where things go when I do that,” she admitted.

Everyone stared at where the pen had just been, more than a little concerned about their own safety.

“How…?” Said Tim carefully.

She tipped her head to the side as she considered the question. Should she tell him the truth? That Nygma had asked her what would happen to an object if she overlapped the portals? Or should she lie and say that she used it to escape?

… probably the escaping thing. That might make them less wary of her.

“Well, after…” How long had she been in there? She didn’t know. “... after a while, I figured I should take my escape into my own hands.”

The boys flinched a little at that. Odd.

“I figured out that when I press portals close enough together whatever I catch in them just kind of… collapses in on itself? Or, at least, they stop existing. It’s hard to tell.”

They were all silent.

Except for Jason, who shook his head. “Wait, that doesn’t make sense. You would have just escaped if you could have done that. And didn’t you say that you needed to know where you were to make a portal?”

And now they were all way more suspicious. She could see them all properly raising their guards.

Even if they were all dressed in their civvies, she knew them well enough to know they had to be hiding weapons on them. They were paranoid bastards, even in their own home. On the off-chance that they didn’t actually have anything on them, they were still trained in hand-to-hand combat. It wouldn’t be a fun fight.

“Where’s Bruce, by the way? If we’re going to have a reunion, he needs to be here, don’t you think?” She tried.

“You don’t need to know,” said Dick.

“... he’s in the Batcave, isn’t he?”

Jason shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. You don’t know how to get in.”

Damn. True.

“Any chance we could skip the next hour or so and you guys lead me there?”

“I think we all know the answer to that,” said Dick.

She sighed lightly. “Yeah…” She detached her lasso from her waist…

And then portaled behind them and took off running.

Marinette didn’t know where Bruce was, but they definitely did.

She waited until Dick had almost caught her before dropping through a new portal and clinging to the rafters of the next room. She watched him come to a halt, the rubber of his shoes screeching against the hardwood floors, and then look around.

The other bats weren’t far behind, coming to a stop beside him.

She watched their hands carefully to make sure they weren’t about to use their comms, straining her not-ears to hear what they were saying:

Damian checked the shadows of the room before clicking his tongue. “Does she know where to go? Should we report to father?”

“She’s on comms,” said Jason.

“Doubt it. If she still had access to comms she would have said something over the past five months,” Dick pointed out.

Damian raised a hand and she readied her lasso --.

Tim stopped him. “Don’t. It’ll put him on guard, but he’ll probably…” His blue eyes scanned the room as well. “... he’ll…” She tried not to move as his eyes passed over her. “... it might give up his location. She doesn’t know where Bruce is yet and she’s probably waiting for us to lead her to him trying to help.”

Alright. Fuck it. She may have had a crush on Tim back when things were good but he had to go.

“So what do we do?” Said Jason.

“Split up. We’ll text each other who is going to be the one to see him. She can’t follow all of us.”

Yep. Definitely had to go.

The four of them split off.

Tim and Jason had gone back the way they’d come, Dick and Damian had headed off in the opposite direction.

She waited for a while after Tim and Jason had split up, enough to make sure Jason wouldn’t hear and come to his aid, and then dropped from the rafters silently.

His steps came to a stop and he gave a tiny sigh.

“I know you’re there.”

“How’d you know?”

“Because, Bean, I know you.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the old nickname.

He pulled his hands from his pockets and she saw the outline of his collapsible bo staff extending even in the dim light of the hallway. He spun on his heel to look at her.

“Any chance we can talk this out?”

She took a short glance around. They were in a hallway, so he couldn’t wield his bo staff quite the way he liked.

Then again, he wasn’t really trying to beat her. If he’d known she was going to follow him, then he was just using himself to buy more time. That was probably why he hadn’t outright attacked her yet, too, the longer he could drag this out the better.

Should she leave…?

No. He was too big of a problem for her to leave.

“I… I just want you to know that none of this is personal.”

“I know,” he said gently.

She raised her fists to fight and advanced on him slowly. “Oh, and if you do somehow knock me out, be a dear and don’t take off my glasses? I’m pretty sure I’d die. Apparently, it’s been five months and I wasn’t fed much.”

He winced ever so slightly.

And then he changed his stance. Business mode, then.

“Noted.”

She dodged his first swing with ease, he always started with a right swing.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as he attempted to jab her with the staff. He nearly stumbled in her haste to get out of range. They both knew that it would be over if she got in close, she’d be able to get a hit in and he wouldn’t be able to get any force behind his attacks.

She took a chance to look back to see how far they were from the nearest room. A good bit, he’d have to force her back quite a lot to get into an open space…

She turned around just in time to get hit in the jaw. She groaned and fell back, then did a quick backroll to get back to her feet.

“You’re out of practice,” he said.

She swallowed back blood. “And you’re a bitch, but you don’t hear me saying anything about it.”

They looked at each other in silence for a few beats…

Their fight styles were both calculated, albeit in different ways; his attacks were always meant to do enough damage to bring someone down quickly, hers were meant to use other’s habits against them. Tim had the disadvantage, what with her miraculous making his attacks less effective and her knowledge of him beforehand, and they both knew it.

She ghosted her hand over the lasso on her waist, wishing for her yoyo. A weapon she was used to would have made this go by far faster...

But it wasn’t the time to be sad over her loss of Tikki, she had other things to do. People to beat.

He ran forward suddenly, bo staff swinging, and she narrowly dodged the right swing. However, that was apparently not his goal, because swiftly used the staff to vault over her and rush towards the room for better mobility.

She grit her teeth and opened a portal on either end of the hall and he narrowly avoided running through it.

His eyes met hers and she sent him a smile.

“Worth a shot,” he said.

“Was it?” She teased, slowly advancing on him.

“I think so,” he said smugly, his eyes focused on a place over her shoulder.

On instinct, she turned to look. Then, when she found nothing, she mumbled a curse.

The end of the bo staff slammed into the side of her head and she stumbled back to try and avoid the worst of the pain. Stars danced in her eyes from two consecutive blows to the head, but she couldn’t concentrate on that. She shook her head a bit and brought her hands up to fight again.

“That should have taken you out. I hate your miraculous right now,” he decided.

“Trust me, you’re not the only one.”

He frowned. “Isn’t it the only thing keeping you alive?”

“See? You get it.”

His frown, somehow deepened. For a moment, he dropped his guard a little.

“What happened to you?”

“I’m sure you have a guess.”

She lunged forward and for once he was the one taken off guard. He quickly dodged the blow to his face and brought his staff towards her shin. He was trying to sweep her legs out from under her, but she had been ready for that.

She hooked her leg around the staff and brought it up. His body jerked forward, pulled by the staff. She drove her elbow into his back and Tim fell to the floor.

She moved the bo staff to her hand and pressed it to the back of his neck before he could get up.

“Any chance you’ll tell me where your father is?”

“Jason would be sad to hear you call him my father.”

“I... don’t care about him right now. Tell me where Bruce is.”

“Nope.”

She felt a little annoyed despite knowing that was going to be the answer. She hit him as hard as she could in the back of the head and winced when he went slack. She dug in his pockets for his phone and turned it on.

Thank kwami you could see notifications even when the phone was locked.

Redhoodiewastaken: should be there soon

She bit the inside of her cheek and pushed herself back to her feet. Her eyes flicked over Tim’s still unmoving body.

It couldn’t be that easy…

Right?

She didn’t know.

She nudged him onto his back with her foot and delivered a blow to his knee to slow him if he woke up too soon (she had a rope, but she wasn’t fond of tying him up with her miraculous weapon, and killing him was off the table if she could help it).

She rolled him onto his side gently and tipped his head back to make sure he could breathe.

She started back the way she came. She needed to decide who she was going to follow next.

Marinette needed to logic this out. Dick would be the best option to go look for their father, he was the most experienced and could hold his own… but Damian would likely want to go for his father because of his weird ‘blood son’ thing… but Jason had sent the text… but Dick was the best fighter… but Damian had a complex… but --...

… aaaaand now she was going in circles. Literally and figuratively.

She stopped her pacing.

It didn’t really matter, did it? She didn’t quite know where any of the people were. She knew the general directions they had gone off in, but that wasn’t enough. The mansion was huge… because it was, y’know, a mansion.

Whatever. She’d open portals in random rooms throughout the house and see if she could find a batboy that way.

After a few more attempts than she’d like to admit, she’d managed to catch sight of someone right as they left a room. She silently dropped into the room and then followed after them, Tim’s stolen bo staff in hand. Maybe it would give whoever it is pause if they saw her.

Damian. She was tailing Damian, she realized as she noted the glint of his shuriken.

Great. The one who was most likely to outright kill her. She loved her luck.

He had opted not to turn on lights because he was currently sneaking and he’d been trained by the League to use the shadows to hide. This was good, she could also use it to hide.

This was unfortunate, too. It meant that she only caught brief flashes of him to follow.

A shuriken sailed past her head when she was halfway through the hallway and she froze up instinctively.

Damian stepped out of the shadows.

“What gave me away?”

He considered her for a second before shaking his head. “Nothing, I just happened to look back at a good time.”

She nodded her understanding and then raised the staff. “Just tell me where your dad is. I don’t want to fight you.”

“That’s your mistake,” he said.

She dodged his next shuriken and collapsed the bo staff for the confined space. If nothing else, she could use the metal to pack more of a punch.

They sized each other up. They both knew that the first hit was usually a disadvantage unless you could get a knock-out first try. Neither of them were eager to put themselves at a disadvantage when so much was on the line.

She’d let him attack first. He’d get impatient at some point, and she needed to think of a strategy.

She couldn’t take him down. Physically, yes, he was probably -- no, definitely -- better than her at fighting, he had years of training on her... but she also needed him to be taken out of the equation. The less people she had pretending to search for Bruce, the better. He likely wouldn’t go if he thought she was tailing him…

A portal opened at her feet. She sent him a wink and a wave before hopping through.

She’d meant it when she’d thought he was a paranoid bastard. Now that she knew where he was and had proven that she could tail him without him noticing (unless he was lucky, which hardly ever happened twice), he would constantly think she was after him.

Tim’s phone buzzed and she looked down.

Therealdamianwayne: Drake is down. She’s armed with his weapon. Assume she has his phone. Everyone else confirm.

Idontwantpicturesthatsjustmyname: haven't seen her

Redhoodiewastaken: me neither.

That was the entire chat.

Nothing about Bruce and who was looking for him. Fair enough, they were assuming she had the phone, but still disappointing.

She started checking rooms again, head resting on her hand as she looked for a flicker of movement and strained to hear anything.

She managed to catch sight of Jason inside his father’s study. He’d changed into his Red Hood gear. She wasn’t sure if she should interpret this as him going to protect Bruce and wanting to be as geared up as possible or him attempting to be as good a distraction as he possibly could be.

Either way...

She dropped down behind him, letting her feet hit the ground louder than usual.

Jason whipped around at the sound and she couldn’t see his face behind his helmet but she didn’t think she wanted to.

Her eyes scanned over him briefly. He was wearing thick padding and armor, she knew…

Wait, was his outfit different? She looked at the red bat on his chest, which was brighter than she remembered it.

He clenched his fists. “You don’t want to do this, Mari, you hardly ever beat me when we spar together.”

“I have more to lose than a bit of honor, now,” she said. She extended Tim’s staff.

“Same here.”

She scowled and twirled the staff in her fingers. She eyed Jason carefully. He wasn’t wrong about her track record. He was all about pins rather than actual hits (or, at least, he was when she was involved), and that was hard to use against him. There were too many variations, too many ways to improvise.

And he had a weight advantage.

And he had very few vulnerable parts at the moment with his outfit. None, possibly, but… she had an idea.

She swung the staff at him and a small groan of frustration left her lips when he let it hit him dead on without budging.

Okay. Fine.

She jabbed the bo staff at his helmet and watched him actually step back to avoid it.

Her eyes narrowed.

She opened a portal above him and dropped down, her bo staff aimed for his head, and she scowled when he ducked to the side.

No matter, she thought as she latched onto one of his shoulders on the way down. The sudden addition of weight, light as it may have been, pulled him off balance. He went crashing into the desk.

Hands struggled for purchase as he drowned in her dress. She grabbed his helmet and started attempting to remove it, bo staff discarded for the sake of getting even one viable place to hit him.

Straddling one of his shoulders, she felt it.

A jolt of electricity ran up her leg and her body seized up in a mix of shock and pain. This was definitely not a good reaction, because she was still touching the stupid taser that he’d had installed in his outfit kwamI DAMNIT THIS HURTS --.

She managed to tear herself off of him, every muscle aching in a way that was way closer to the way the chemicals had burned her for her liking.

And then the pain was gone. Or, at least, the thing administering it was. Her body still tingled with electricity. Every little involuntary spasm only seemed to make it worse.

Jason leaned over her, the bat on his chest back to the shade of red she was used to.

The fucker CHEATED.

He pulled off his helmet and looked down at her mostly unmoving body, his lips drawn in a frown.

She glared up at him as much as her face would allow through the pain. It would be so easy to kill him. A little portal was all it would take.

He reached out and closed her eyes for her.

~

She forced her eyes open and cringed at what she saw.

The walls and ceiling were white and featureless. She had no clue where she was.

She remembered, vaguely, that Jason had once told her Bruce had contingencies for everyone, including his kids. She’d laughed at the time. Now…

She shifted out of the bed they’d put her in, ignoring the dull ache of her muscles, and explored the room. There was a door on one wall, she wasn’t surprised when she found it to be locked. Beyond that… nothing.

Except for a speaker. Her breath caught as she looked at it and she tried to fight back the sudden wave of panic.

What if this wasn’t Bruce?

This could just as easily be her punishment from Harley and Joker for failing. They’d put her in a white room before, this could just be the upgraded one since she’d actively disappointed them.

Would they have given her a bed if they were mad at her? She was pretty sure they wouldn’t, but then again it could just be one of their experiments.

She shuddered a little bit at the memory and suddenly found herself wishing for a jacket.

What would help her figure out if this was Joker or Bruce?

Her eyes scanned the room for any glass and found there wasn’t any observation windows. Point towards the bats.

She looked at her lapel and she whimpered a little when she found that the bug Joker had put on her was gone. It had been mostly hidden by the natural ruffles of her outfit. It wasn’t impossible that the bats had noticed it, but it was definitely unlikely. Point towards Joker.

… what else was there?

She didn’t need to wonder for long, because the speaker crackled to life:

“Marinette, we’re going to come in to talk to you about some stuff we found out while you were out, if you can promise not to attack us.”

She bit the inside of her cheek as she considered it.

“Fine. As long as it’s not Jason, I won’t attack.”

She could practically hear Jason’s whines. And maybe she could. Who knows, the others might be just outside the door.

Probably not, because it took an entire minute before the door opened to reveal Tim.

Well, they appeared to be Tim, at least. She wasn’t going to discard the idea that this was some new fear toxin-induced nightmare just yet.

He stepped through and it closed behind him.

She took a seat on the bed and he came to a stop a few feet from her. They didn’t trust her.

Fair. Tim’s head and knee were still wrapped in bandages from when she’d attacked them.

She allowed herself to wonder, momentarily, why he had come in alone when he was injured. She brushed this off, though. She’d already proven her goal wasn’t really hurting him or the other batkids, and the way he had come in had made it clear he didn’t actually have a key or anything on him.

She rested her head on her hand, scrutinizing his expression. He was trying to maintain a neutral facade, but she recognized the slight downturn of his lips.

“So? You had some findings?” She prompted when he didn’t say anything.

“Right.” He looked down at the clipboard in his hands. “I checked your vitals, and…” He cleared his throat. “You were right. Your miraculous is the only thing keeping you going, your cells haven’t had anything to go on for a long time. You’re… pretty much dead.”

She decided that this had to be real, not fear toxin. Or, at least, if this was fear toxin it was the worst batch Scarecrow had whipped up in a long while.

“... yeah? What’s your point?” She said, waving for him to get on with it.

This only seemed to distress the man in front of her.

“Bean, I don’t think you heard me, you’re dead. Like… not going to come back dead.”

She giggled. “I’m dead inside. Literally.” She held up a hand for a high-five.

He high-fived her on instinct then gave his hand a betrayed expression.

She smiled and put her hands in her lap, running her thumb along where her hand had touched his.

“Please take this seriously,” he pleaded.

“It’s not news to me, I’m the one who brought it up to you. I had, I think, seven granola bars, a cookie, and a few glasses of water for five months. Not exactly three square meals and eight glasses of water a day.”

He gripped his clipboard so tightly his knuckles had turned white. “Your ears were also cut off.”

“No? Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

“Please just… react normally!” Said Tim, his voice a mix of exasperated and saddened.

She didn’t bother looking at him. “If you haven’t noticed already, I don’t care.”

“You should! You’re dead!”

“What’s the point? I’ll die when I take off these glasses, whenever I’m ready to do that, and that doesn’t change whether or not I want to overreact about it.”

“WE AREN’T OVERREACTING! YOU’RE UNDERREACTING!”

She flinched and reached up to wipe the tears trying to form behind her eyes.

The reaction was instantaneous. Tim dropped his clipboard and, despite her having recently attacked him, dove towards her. Hands locked around her wrists and forced them back into her lap.

She blinked a few times, her brain struggling to figure out why he’d done that. She stared at the hands that had moved down to gently rest over her own, at the thumbs rubbing circles into her skin. She hadn’t done anything good. Why was he…?

She saw the way he looked to be on the verge of tears as well and it clicked.

Ah. He’d thought she was going to kill herself.

Marinette swallowed thickly and looked back down at their hands, trying to ignore the wave of happiness that had decided to rush through her at the tiny action. It wasn’t because she was good, she told herself, it was because he’d thought she was going to die.

She’d be useless if she was dead.

Not that she was very useful right now. She hadn’t succeeded at the one thing she’d been asked to do.

Now she was definitely crying.

So was he, actually.

Wild. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him cry before.

She hesitated, unsure what she was allowed to do, and then slowly leaned her head on his shoulder.

He rested his head against hers.

“We were so… we thought you…” He trailed off, unable to finish any of the thoughts aloud.

She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

She didn’t answer.

Time passed them by as they sat there, leaning into each other, their fingers intertwined.

But...

Should she ruin the moment? She had something she had to tell him. She was pretty sure he already knew, but if he didn’t...

She bit the inside of her cheek.

“Tim,” she whispered.

He nodded slightly to say he was listening.

“They have the ladybug miraculous.”

“We know,” he said quietly. To her surprise, he didn’t pull away. “That’s not what I’m worried about right now, though.”

“It should be.”

He shook his head slightly.

“What happened to you?” He repeated his question from when they’d fought.

Her eyes fell on their hands and she tried her hardest to ignore the tears sliding down her face. “Nothing much. Harley and Joker said they wanted to break me like they tried to do with you.”

He stiffened under her but didn’t say anything.

“But after one trip to the chemical vats Harley changed what they were doing. Put me in a white room like this one. Sometimes they’d dose me with fear toxin, most of the time I would just sit around waiting for Harley to come to try and talk me into killing Bruce. I think that was daily, I don’t really know.”

He drew back a little bit to look at her and she tried not to whine at the sudden cold that came over her.

“That’s… are you okay?”

“I think so. Like I said, it wasn’t much.”

He looked more than a little skeptical. “Okay, so why did they let you go?”

“Wanted me to kill Bruce.”

“But they trusted you to do it without running away, and you did.”

She shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Why?”

How do you say ‘I crave the validation of a supervillain’ without saying it? Because even saying it in her head makes it sound pretty bad.

And it wasn’t bad, just… abnormal?

Yeah. That was it. Abnormal.

Shit. He was looking at her for an answer and now that she was trying to think of literally any other sentence to say her mind was just blaring the same words over and over again.

“Uh… didn’t cross my mind?” She said lamely.

He stared at her for a few moments. “You want me to believe that you left the place they had been keeping you in, traveled all the way here, waited however long for us to come home, and fought us… and you didn’t think about leaving once?”

“... yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying happened.”

“I’m not buying it.”

“I’d be concerned about how stupid you thought I was if you did.”

He cracked a tentative half-smile before pulling her into him. “I don’t know what happened, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I’m just… I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Won’t be safe for long. Do you know who’s using the miraculous?”

“Catwoman. She was a little upset she couldn’t keep up the ‘cat’ thing, but I think she doesn’t mind much anymore because of the whole ‘can summon anything at any time and fix every mistake she makes’ thing.”

“Makes sense.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

She pressed against his chest to pull away from him. “Right. Can I have a marker or pen or something?”

He looked a little confused before he dug into his pockets and found a pen for her. He handed it over. “Sure. Why?”

She twirled the pen in her fingers as she considered the question.

“I need to make a plan to get it back. Obviously. Now get out, I need to think.”

She attempted to shoo him, only to have him catch her wrists again.

“You need to rest.”

“I’ll be fine. Can’t work myself to death if I’m already dead, right?”

He looked reluctant to leave her after that, but she was already pushing him to the door. She watched him step through, trying to catch sight of the space beyond where they’d trapped her, but he was careful to leave in a way that blocked her view.

They still didn’t trust her.

Fair enough. She clutched the pen tighter in her hands.

She fell back on the bed. Even if there wasn’t an observation window here, there was sure to be at least a few hidden cameras to make sure she didn’t do anything to contact Harley and Joker.

And she probably would have if she could. They’d taken the bug on her and the cheap pager she’d been given in case something like this had happened, though.

Her brain wandered to Tim’s question from earlier. Why was she so determined to help Harley?

She’d thought it was just affection. But that couldn’t be it. Tim had given her some affection while he was there and, while it was nice to have someone touch her in a way that wasn’t violent, it didn’t have nearly the same effect as Harley’s hugs and praise did.

Marinette scooted up until her head rested on a pillow and closed her eyes.

Whatever. She could plan. She was good at those.

The options were to a) behave until she was allowed out or b) wait to be visited by Bruce and then put the pen Tim had given her to good use.

She didn’t like either of those options, but they were the only ones that would have a chance of working if she wanted to kill Bruce.

She let herself drift off. She had a lot of waiting to do.


End file.
